The Growing Challenge – Week 4

It’s amazing how growing food can become such an amazing challenge. To reach my goal of growing peanuts or wheat or something similar I am going to have to grow as a person and learn to compromise a little more. I had a certain vision for when we moved here but that vision is not to be so I am going to do things how other people would for a little while until a) I prove myself as a vegie grower or b) we find our dream home/land and move.

I prefer a “no dig” system of gardening for a myriad of reasons including maintenance of soil structure and generally better soil condition. I worked pretty hard at our old house trying to bring the soil “up to scratch” by adding organic matter and loads of mulch constantly and, it was almost at the point where it was half decent – you could scratch the surface and find worms. I also find that “no dig” gardening is less prone to weeds and more easily filled with food and flowers – it’s never dug up so you don’t have to clear it out for the next crop. Anyway, I have come across a different system that I must embrace for the short term and, for the sake of being able to garden, I will. But, mark my words, I am going to prove that I can grow great vegies!

So, the patch that I have taken over looked like this last week:

Then, my father-in-law got his tractor and slashed the area and made my husband rotary hoe the area so that it looked like this:

An amazingly fine powder of rich looking red soil (I grew up in an area of clay so this site is quite amazing). Yesterday I planted it out with the seedlings I bought last Wednesday. I have put in two types of lettuce (and will try to continue to put in a punnet a week – preferably raised from seed by me) – cos and seasonal – two types of cabbage (savoy and earlyball ? can’t remember), carrot seeds (2 packets – All seasons and Baby carrots), parsnip seeds (Hollow crown), basil seeds (self grown) and to finish off the row I transplanted a tomato that had self seeded in my Daphne pot. I am not sure that the tomato will make it, I was probably better off putting it in a pot as the nights are really cooling down now. Anyway, this is kind of what the garden looks like now:

Hi Beck, Cam has successfully grown peanuts over here (they were great), and mustard (but we ate the leaf didn’t harvest the seed) and has got sweet pototatoes in for the first time which are going okay. Good luck. Glad to hear you sounding cheery!

Wow, your new garden bed looks awesome 🙂 I wish I had that much room, LOL. Incidentally, I *love* the view from your clothesline, so much wonderful open space! Good luck with your new vegie plants!
Cheers, Julie